


Genius Loci - Jedi [notfic]

by litra



Series: Notfic [33]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Jedi Code (Star Wars), Jedi Training (Star Wars), Naboo Culture and Customs (Star Wars), Notfic, Tatooine Slave Culture (Star Wars), Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:56:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29739774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litra/pseuds/litra
Summary: The Jedi have a different history - they are the personifications of their people and planets.
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Series: Notfic [33]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/774375
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	Genius Loci - Jedi [notfic]

**Author's Note:**

> like all my notfic - this story is free to a good home.

So this is an idea that hit me this morning and kind of consumed my brain. The fandom is Star Wars prequels era but it may grow out of that.  
  
The core of the idea is that Jedi are not human. They are the personifications of the genius loci of different planets and cultures. Long ago somebody shortened genius loci to Gedii which then became Jedii and then Jedi. These personifications are born when a culture gains its own identity. They can die either when the physical shape is killed or when they culture that that Jedi represents is damaged either by being wiped out, or by having a fundamental mental shift. The new Jedi is then born and will have vague vestigial memories of the previous life but will be a new person.  
  
At some point in the distant history, possibly during one of the Sith wars (and I'll get to the Sith in a moment) one of the Jedi started collecting their brothers and sisters and training them. The fact of the matter is that these cultures should not die over the span of a human lifetime. And being Jedi, they have a lot of abilities that a regular sentiment being does not. They can tap into the needs and wants and potential of everyone that they represent. So in order to stabilize the Galactic Republic, and colonization efforts, the Jedi were gathered up and talk to use what they are for the benefit of their people.

This eventually formed the current Jedi order which is not exactly what the original goal was but again I'll get to that in a moment.  
  
The Sith are also genius loci, but they are either the surviving genius loci of dead cultures or they are the personifications of cultures that have turned on themselves, and started rotting from the inside. Dark city is an example of the former, besides Ventress is an example of the latter. Dooku is somewhere in between.  
  
Coruscant does not have a Jedi. The planet itself is basically dead, and the cultures that live on it don't have any cohesion. The Jedi tell the story of a heroic sacrifice in which the coruscant Jedi offered themselves up and sacrifice their home and themselves to unite the galaxy. This is tell of a great manipulation that poisoned coruscant until it went mad and killed itself.  
  
The current Jedi order still goes out and finds new Jedi and brings them back to the temple for training but these days they are much more focused on the galaxy as a whole rather then going back to their home planet's when they have been trained and then helping those planets. It's not necessarily bad but it's not the original goal of the Jedi order.  
  
Obi-Wan Kenobi is a relatively young Jedi. There was a natural disaster on Stewjon, and the previous Jedi died. Qui-Gon Jin's home world according to the wiki is coruscant which does not work so I'm going to say he is the Jedi for Corellia. Which means that his death a decade before the clone wars is just about the right timing for the new Jedi to be Han, because who doesn't like a force sensitive untrained Han Solo?   
  
Now when Qui-Gon stumbles onto young Anakin on Tatooine he immediately recognizes him as a new Jedi, but as far as he knows there is already a Jedi of Tatooine. Sharad Hett is the Tuscan Jedi and as far as Qui-Gon is aware he may even be on Tatooine. Now, it's not impossible for a single planet to have multiple Jedi when they have multiple different cultures. Noboo is a very good example of this.  
  
Naboo has a Gungan Jedi. When the plan was first settled by humans the Gungan's were already there and they agreed that humans could settle on the parts of the planet that they were not using. The Gungan Jedi was found, brought to the temple and trained as usual. The Nubian humans however are only three or four generations past colonization which means their culture is still fairly young. Padme should be a Jedi, but her culture has never produced a Jedi before. Since the culture needs leaders as much as it needs Jedi the order in general decided to leave her be and wait to see if she either grew into herself, or died a human death and her next incarnation became a true Jedi.  
  
Qui-Gon wasn't on board with this. He tends to be of the opinion that everyone should be trained and just abandoning her is not a great course of action, and then before the mission is even done he finds Anakin.  
  
Anakin is the Jedi of the Tatooine slave culture. He is not the first of his line but he is the first two of ever been found. All of his predecessors have died quickly and bloodily. They are called the Skywalker's, and the unfettered, they are the ones who fight, who tried to escape again and again and again. Anakin of course is still very young and does not have any of the skills of a trained Jedi or even any of the skills of his past incarnations.  
  
Qui-Gon makes the decision that Anakin has to be trained and the whole pod race thing happens. Now, Qui-Gon is actually much more confident that Anakin will win the pod race in this universe. Pod racing is a key element of Tatooine culture, which means Anakin should be inherently very good at it, and the fact that he has raced before proves that fact. If Anakin decides to win he should be able to draw on the hopes and fears of everyone on Tatooine, everyone in his culture, to make that happen. Qui-Gon is also being a bit blind to the fact that, once again, Anakin has not been trained.  
  
But of course Anakin does win the race and Qui-Gon does take him off Tatooine.  
  
Now in this universe Anakin is not told to cut his hair or dress a certain way. He is the embodiment of a certain culture and if he chooses to embody that culture through the way he looks more power to him. In this world the Jedi don't have any kind of uniform. Showing off their culture and where they come from is a point of pride.

There is also no argument about whether Anakin should be trained. He is brought before the Council and they put him into a trance and he tells them about his previous incarnations, the unfettered, Leia, Ekreth, and while it's clear that they have been lax in their search, there is nothing saying that he should not be trained because he's too old. Age has never been a factor. Instead the argument is how he should be trained. Some of the Council think he should be sent to Sharad Hett to be trained, because they are planetary siblings. Others think he should stay on Coruscant. No one thinks she should stay with Qui-Gon, except Qui-Gon.  
  
The idea of one teacher to one student isn't necessarily a rule here it's more just the way things have been done. The fact of the matter is that there aren't so many cultures out there that they need a lot of teachers. Most of the time they know when a Jedi has died and someone who was close to the previous incarnation will teach the next incarnation. That is possibly how Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan became master and padawan. Add to that the fact that any young Jedi can approach any master if they want to learn something specific and it's more a case of many masters one student than the other way around.  
  
Sidebar: Mace Windu invented the Vapaad as a way to channel the harshness of the jungles of Harun kal. 

While all of the argument over where Anakin should go is happening he ends up talking with Padme and they bond as being completely untrained Jedi.  
  
Again, love isn't something that is strictly forbidden but falling in love with someone outside of your own culture is so extremely rare that it almost seen as taboo. The thought is that no one outside of your own culture could truly understand who you are. Plus, there's a sliding scale of being more or less human among the Jedi. And by human I mean more likely to do human things. More likely to eat, or sleep, or go to the bathroom outside of a ritual setting. Yoda is on the very far end of that spectrum. No one has seen him eat anything in decades and he only drinks tea because it's part of the ritual of being a Jedi. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are both more towards the human side of things. I'm going to say both of them like eating and drinking as a pastime and not just because it is socially important to do so. Anakin pretty much doesn't know how to do anything else but be human.   
  
When Padme fails to convince the Senate she decides to seek help from the Gungan's, and the Gungan Jedi in particular. None of the Jedi told her that she is a potential Jedi, but between Anakin and jar jar she has figured it out. She's going to ask the Gungan Jedi for aid and advice and hope for the best.  
  
So of course Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and the rest of them all go back to Naboo. Turns out when the Gungan's went to the sacred place, that was basically all of them camping out in the Jedi's front yard. I don't think the Jedi is boss Nass, but it could be written that way... In any case, the Gungan's agree to help and the rest of it goes basically the same as the movie. 

Skipping forward to the clone wars... 

I don't think Jango is a jedi and I don't think Boba is either, as awesome as that would be. The Mandalorian jedi is not a clone, but there may be a jedi for the clones... as they build up their own culture... or the potential was there before order 66 stripped everything of that culture from them. The potential jedi is then forced to become a sith and Sidious does some terrible experiments on them. They might survive to become an inquisitor, or they might not. If they do, they lose a lot of power as the clones are filtered out of the service and slowly killed off.

A lot of the survivors of the purges who were then captured became inquisitors in the same way. The cultures they were meant to protect are twisted - sometimes violently into a new form, cutting them off, and forcing them to go dark or die. 

A lot of new Jedi are born, and the race to find them becomes a priority for both the Empire and the growing rebellion. 

This is where Luke and Leia come in. They are the children of two jedi and don't really fit. As I said before most Jedi are not really sexual. A child between two Jedi is extremely rare. They have all the potential without the tie to a specific culture/planet. This makes them magnetic in the force. They naturally gather people to them. Leia was given more of a chance for this, being a princess. She is not the new Jedi of Alderan - She becomes the Jedi of the rebellion. The Jedi of Alderan is her sister Winter, and yes Bail and Breha knew what they were doing when they adopted her. Having them together and already in the public eye as the two loved princesses actually hid them fairly well.

Luke might have become a new Jedi of Tatooine he might have become the Jedi of the moisture farmers or something - two factors prevented this. First being so isolated, and with Tatooine already having several Jedi (both Sharad and Anakin are still alive) Luke isn't given an opportunity to gather many people to him. Secondly, when people start to gather - Obi-Wan is there to diffuse the energy and scatter them again, hiding the signs of Luke's presence. 

I don't know if Luke and Leia - being twins could share the rebellion culture or if Luke remains untethered. If the later that might be why Vader/Sidios tried so hard to turn him. He's a natural wellspring. 

Vader turning back to the light is him reconnecting to the culture that created him, fighting back against the masters and slavers and freeing himself like those before him. in dieing Luke is given the chance to take his place as the Jedi of the Tatooine slave culture. He comes at it from a different angle - the slave who was born free and helps others on the trail to freedom. He has already acted as such by killing Jaba.

Not sure if there's an actual plot in there somewhere or where it goes from there.


End file.
